Jim Saying #1 – You Can’t Push on a Rope

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In this weeks Coffee Conversation, Jim mentioned a saying he often said to me about change and client readiness.

You can’t push on a rope, or in other words, if a client is not ready, no matter how hard you push they will not move in that direction.  This also speaks to our "Drip Methodology" post as well.

  1. mip Reply

    I already knew you could walk on water Steve.
    😉
    Ciao,
    mip

  2. Jim Reply

    There is another similar expression which we used to use in Newfoundland which talked about a certainly futility. It was “pissing in the wind”. In addition to not helping anybody else it backfires on you. However I do not want to discourage people from taking leadership and stepping outside the box. We need to put ideas out there in a way that does not threaten the reciever.

  3. Stephen Reply

    As Graham said in a recent client workshop when I used this analogy:
    “You can always freeze the rope”
    To which I responded,
    “So then I can walk on water then … as long as it is frozen”.

  4. mip Reply

    You do realize however, if you push on a rope long enough, you’ll end up pulling in the other direction.
    😉

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